La chambre (1972)

“Chantal was living in a room on Spring Street, in a Soho that, in 1972, was still deserted. The room was small, on the second floor, with east and west windows. I remember it was winter. The sun came into the room in the late morning. So the continuous movement, the location and the time were just right. (…) It’s just the two of us in the room, and we’ve got eternity ahead of us. We shoot on mute, of course. This was the norm in experimental circles at the time. We’ll think about sound later. In two hours it’s done. Two chargers, two takes, but one a little better than the other because of Chantal’s gestures. Perfect harmony in the improvisation. Today, the film reads less like a tribute to Michael Snow than a metaphor for the sensual power of the hidden. Chantal’s gestures, as she lies in bed under the covers, are captured without being fully revealed. The film exists as a film because of the suggestive power of the actress’s ambiguous gestures.

The film is luminous in its simplicity. The constant-speed motion mechanism is not synchronized with the gestures. This sense of voyeuristic chance contributes to the hypnotic power and sensual evocation of these gestures.”

• Babette Mangolte, in Autoportrait en cinéaste, Cahiers du cinéma/ Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2004

Là-bas (2006)

“Over there, the ‘over there’ for each of us, a place we dream of, an ‘over there’ that would be a Paradise, doesn’t it exist? Are we in exile everywhere? And I was watching the people in front of me, hidden by blinds made of thin strips of straw but that allowed me to see, to look at the world in front of me. One day, I took the camera in hand and positioned myself somewhere, and suddenly there was a frame, a shot. And I said to myself, this is a wonderful frame. All I have to do now is wait and let things happen. I won’t move, and everything that has to happen will come into my frame, without my intervention. And this frame is like a stage.”

As is so often the case, Chantal Akerman (Belgium, 1950-2015) takes her own films as a starting point for other creations. The importance given to the shot and the frame naturally led her to the freeze-frame form of photography. Here, we are presenting seven images, seven shots that relate a journey that is simultaneously interior, inner and transgenerational, but that is also an attempt to capture the meaning of a place.

• Chantal Akerman in the press release for the film Là-bas

Marian Goodman Gallery champions the work of artists who stand among the most influential of our time, representing over five generations of diverse thought and practice. What makes the gallery singular is its enduring and deep-rooted collaborations and understanding with the artists—a bond that is concurrent with curators, thought leaders, and art institutions worldwide. The Gallery’s exhibition program, characterized by its caliber and rigor, provides international platforms for its artists to showcase their work, foster vital dialogues with new audiences, and advance their practices within nonprofit and institutional realms.

Established in 1977 by Goodman, who had earlier co-founded the art publishing company, Multiples, Inc., the Gallery gained prominence early in its trajectory for introducing the work of seminal European artists to American audiences. Synchronous with the mission at hand, Marian and the Gallery were inevitably drawn to Europe, establishing a Paris location in the Marais district in 1998 and an adjacent space for books and editions in 2017. From 2014 until 2022, the Gallery also operated an exhibition space in London.

With its desire to continually explore growing areas of interest for its artists, the Gallery has opened an exhibition space in Hollywood, Los Angeles, in 2023, and will move its present New York City headquarters to an historic building in Tribeca in 2024. With two major spaces anchoring each coast, and an ongoing program for over two decades in Paris, Marian Goodman Gallery will be able to further advance new bodies of work and the creative practices of the leading contemporary artists of our time.